Chapter 35 Living with elvers 2 (1/2)

2 months had now passed since the 4 elvers Alvin, Rex, Isabel and Chloe had begun living with Mars, the wooden hut had long been completed and the elvers was using it as a sleeping place while Mars and Victoria still slept in the cave together on the bear hide, Mars had grown closer with the elvers and even Victoria had begun sending telepathic messages to the other elvers espatialy to Chloe, as after Chloe had gotten over her fear had taken quite a liking to the death panther cub, even causing Mars to be slightly jealous

Mars spent the 2 mounts hunting together with the elvers when they where low on food, and spearing with Rex and Alvin training and helping him get used to his [Swordsmanship] skill, even learning a little hand to hand combat from Isabel that was even better than Rex at hand to hand combat, he also learned some more spells from Chloe and even though she was more restrained compared to the now infamous first lecture Mars could still see a hint of joy in her eyes when he called her teacher

”....and done!”

Mars was currently inside the cave, left alone as Victoria was playing with Chloe, he had just finished making a shirt and a new pair of shorts out of some newly hunted wind deer hide, the hide was a light brown color and pretty though so it made for some good materiel, most of the leather armor the elvers wore was also made from wind deer

”...i wonder what the others are doing”

as Mars had spent more time... well being alive he had discovered he had a tendency to lose sight of all other things when he was working on something, just like now he had no idea how long he had been working on his new project and after quickly changing into his new clothes he walked out off the cave and looked around the clearing spotting Rex that was practicing with his sword sending out sharp slashes that even seemed to cut the air as the fallen leaves on the ground seemed laid completely still while Rex send out even more cut and stabs into the air, Mars gave a slight smile and picked up his bone sword that was leaning against the cave wall at the entrance of the cave and walked over to Rex and suddenly slashed at him

”let me join in on the fun!”

Rex effortlessly blocked Mars's slash with his own sword and fell back a little as he opened his eye and saw Mars

”...oh it's just you Mars”

Mars gave a sigh, even though he knew Rex's [Swordsmanship] was a level lower than him at level 3 he still had not manegred to best him in a pure sword fight witch irritated him somewhat as he slashed at Rex again with a wide smile on his face

”let's train a little!”

Rex blocked again and also gave a smile as he counter attacked with a stab

”your on!”

what followed was intense sword fight, with slashes so fast it was hard to see them just using your eyes, as Mars and Rex even began to laugh as Rex gave a sudden kick that landed solidly on Mars's stomach sending him back a few meters as Mars showed a even wider smile while his horns started to grow out of his forehead while his eyes turned red before he launched at Rex again as the sword fight picked up speed, and the only thing heard the next few minutes was laughter and swords clashing until Mars pulled back slightly out of breath and lowered his sword

”...i still can't beat you”

Rex was not out of breath and looked perfectly fine showing the difference actual experience made over a higher skill level as he gave also smile as he praised Mars

”your getting better fast, in another 5 years i might not be able to keep up in pure speed”

Rex also lowered his sword before throwing it to Mars that caught it easily before he activated his [Energy: restoration] skill restoring and repairing the 2 sword at the same time with 10 energy units each before he threw the sword back to Rex that caught it and inspected the blade before he gave an approving nod

”no matter how many time i see it, it's still amazing, that skill of yours”

Mars started to undo his transformation as he wiped the sweat off his forehead when his ears picked up movement in the forest moving towards the clearing and tensed up for a moment before he recognized the footsteps and gave Rex a quick look before he sat down on a tree stump and waited for a few seconds until suddenly a blur shot out from the forest and jumped into Mars's lap and began purring

”Mars... i'm back”

Mars began to give Victoria her usual head pates while he looked her over, she was still about 1,5 meters tall from paw to shoulder when she stood up so there was not much change there, but what had changed since he made a contract with her was red orange spider web pattern on her smooth black fur had grown more and more pronounced that now it looked more like stripes, Mars even felt like a unknowing hunter might not be able to identify her species anymore

”yeah, welcome back Victoria”

Mars was about to ask what she had been doing when Alvin, Chloe and Isabel walked out of the tree line into the clearing, they all had stern faces and Chloe looked a little pale and was leaning on Isabel when she walked and Mars noticed her lower leg had been bandaged but was still bleeding as Mars could smell fresh blood and burned flesh from her leg was about to ask what had happened when Rex beat him to it

”what happened?”

Alvin put on a even more bitter face looking like he just ate a bitter bug before he looked away as he answered Rex

”...it was the damn spiders again”

Rex also made a stern face and looked at Chloe as his face paled slightly before he gave a sigh and asked with a heavy tone in his voice

”how is Chloe's leg, can it be saved?”

hear what Rex was saying Mars suddenly got the gravity of the situation as he also had been infected by the spider poison once, so he knew how nasty it was